An ESM™ Embedded System Module is the basis for the control of the automated part of a high-speed precision robot's head. Such robots are needed in the production process of plastics materials, in painting, for semiconductor production in clean rooms, for machine tending and all general automation purposes.

The ESM™ module itself is powered by a Pentium® III or Celeron® processor running at 650 or 933MHz clock frequency. Two Fast Ethernets and two COMs are already implemented on the ESM™. All other I/O connectivity is realized on an application-specific ESM™ carrier board. It features for example USB, a floppy interface and additional PCI slots for use of standard slot cards in the ESM™ computing environment. The additional functionality is implemented by means of IP cores in the FPGA which is located on the ESM™ module. For example, the FPGA allows to implement different fieldbus interfaces depending on the application. The advantage of such modern, robust and reliable electronics lies in the cost improvement, compatibility and flexibility for different robot versions as well as long-term availability.